Local councillors unhappy with lack of consultation over £2 million contract
Cllr Richard Kemp and his colleagues have called in a decision for a major contract to improve Queens Drive(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Frustrated councillors have called-in a decision for a £2 million project to upgrade one of Liverpool’s busiest roads. Local representatives believe a major programme of work on Queens Drive could cause ‘chaos’ if not planned out correctly.
An extraordinary meeting has now been called to discuss the plans to award a large contract for improvement works to an area of Queens Drive, which were agreed at a cabinet meeting earlier this month. The improvement works are set to cover a large area of the busy road in south Liverpool. The area stretches from the main thoroughfare’s junction with Mossley Hill Drive, near to Sefton Park, all the way to near its junction with Allerton Road.
In terms of the work itself, the cabinet report is light on detail, but states that the scheme will focus on road maintenance along Queens Drive, including improving the existing carriageway, resurfacing footways and replacing damaged kerbs and pedestrian guardrails.
The estimated value of the contract is £1,897,398.
As part of the improvements, the council says that a new pedestrian crossing will be installed near the junction with Aigburth Vale.
As well as this, kerbs will be realigned at the entrances to Queens Drive access roads, near the Dovedale Road junction in a bid to “enhance pedestrian crossing facilities.” Vegetation clearance and tree stump removal will also take place at various locations along the route.
The council says the improvements to pedestrian safety, accessibility and infrastructure are “anticipated to significantly enhance mobility and inclusivity” with these benefits stemming from “safer crossings, restored footways, better seating provision and the prioritising of pedestrian movement.”
But the local authority acknowledges that the work is likely to cause problems for local people. The report states that some negative impacts may arise during construction, such as increased journey times. It says road closures may negatively impact vehicle travel times.
And it is these impacts and the lack of detail provided in the report that have led local councillors to call-in the project for further scrutiny.
Call-in is the process by which a scrutiny committee exercises its statutory right to scrutinise executive decisions that have been made but not yet implemented by the council.
In this case, Liberal Democrat councillors Richard Kemp, Robert McAllister-Bell, Andrew Makinson and Rebecca Turner submitted the call-in request of the cabinet decision for a number of reasons.
Queens Drive has been closed many times over flooding – including in August 2023 when married couple Elaine and Philip Marco tragically drowned in floodwater(Image: Liverpool Echo)
The group described the project as a “contentious scheme” at an area of many traffic problems. They said that while the nearby Liverpool College appears to have been consulted about the plans, other schools don’t appear to have been and neither have the residents in the areas that will be most affected by any disruption.
The councillors have asked for the local authority to conduct a consultation exercise with local schools and the local community.
They have also raised concerns about how this project will fit with a huge £30m drainage project from United Utilities in a nearby park. The north west water board is in the early stages of its plans to install an enormous water tank reaching 60ft below ground in Wavertree Park, known to most as The Mystery.
The project is expected to have a knock-on impact for those living close to Queens Drive and Penny Lane. Cllr Kemp told the ECHO the United Utilities scheme is likely to include work to dig up a junction between Penny Lane and Dovedale Road where a valve for turning the giant rainwater tank will be installed.
Cllr Kemp said: “Any road closures in this area already cause chaos and there will be more if the council have not looked at the timetables of these different works.
“The information is so scant in the report, so we don’t know how it is being planned. We want to know it is all part of a coherent plan. We don’t want to see them making improvements and then having to dig them up again. We have now idea how this is going to relate to the United Utilities plan.
He said he was shocked that local ward councillors had not been consulted on the latest plans, particularly given the fact that they cover the area of Queens Drive where married couple Elaine and Philip Marco tragically died as their car entered flood water in August 2023.
Earlier this year, an inquest ruled that Liverpool City Council failed to recognise the risk to life on the section of Queens Drive where the Marcos died, despite multiple previous incidents of flooding that year. New measures have since been introduced to close the road when it floods.
Cllr Kemp added: “Given the sensitivities, it seems unthinkable that they didn’t let the ward councillors know (about the new plans). This is an area of Queens Drive that has been opening and closing because of flooding.
“If I don’t know what is being planned, then the thousands of people affected by it won’t know either.”
The council’s scrutiny officer deemed the call-in request from the Lib Dem group to be valid and the contract award decision has therefore been called in.
An extraordinary meeting of the council’s Sustainable, Safe and Thriving Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Committee will now take place on January 6 to discuss the matter.